"Saturday was all about the three points"

"Saturday was all about the three points" with both Peterborough United and Middlesbrough hoping to come away from the match with three points for differing reasons.

Posh were desperate for three points to help them crawl towards safety while Boro were looking to bolster their points tally in an attempt to get nearer the automatic promotion positions.

Unfortunately it was the latter that came away with all three points and it was Boro manager Tony Mowbray that said: 'Saturday was all about the three points'.

Having lost their last match 3-2 after being 2-0 up, Mowbray was hoping history didn`t repeat itself when he saw Posh battle back from 2-0 down after only 20 minutes to draw level in the 52nd minute thanks to a brace of goals from Dagenham and Redbridge loanee Dwight Gayle.

'I sat there at 2-2 and I thought of last Friday, losing a lead twice, losing the game ultimately, but our changes in the second half helped us,' Mowbray said to the Northern Echo.

'They'd lost 4-1 in their last two home games, and yet the evidence we'd seen is that they're a very good football team,' he continued.

'They ask questions of you, they have some talented players and going forward they give teams real problems. Peterborough are a good side and will cause problems for teams, but Saturday was all about the three points.'

Posh boss Darren Ferguson praised his players after the match despite the defeat as he said: 'We were excellent today apart from the poor defending that cost us three goals. I was very encouraged by the overall performance and if we can string a few displays like that together we will certainly win games.

'To come back from two goals down against a team of Middlesbrough`s quality showed great character and when Dwight equalised I felt there would only be one winner.

'We were running all over them at the time, but again we conceded a soft goal which ended up costing us a point. Firstly you should show Miller his right foot as he doesn`t score with that one very often and then Bobby should have saved it.

'Bobby apologised to us after the game, but an apology is no use to us, I expect him to save shots like that. To be fair Bobby`s been outstanding for us all season so I can`t be too down on him, but when you`re stuck at the bottom things like that tend to happen.

Both managers were in agreement over who the better team were. Commenting after the match, Mowbray said: 'We had a week to study their style and to come up with a good gameplan and for 20 minutes we looked like we might have a comfortable afternoon.

'We were happy to let them have the ball knowing that if their passing broke down we could hit them on the break, but to be fair to Darren and his team they played much better than in their last two home matches.

'They started to dominate possession and they caused us plenty of problems. Darren has some good players in his team and they ask questions of you all the time.

'The lad [Gayle] has scored a cracking goal to get them back in the game and it turned into a very tough afternoon for us.

'If they are bottom of the league it shows what a tough division the Championship is. They just need a bit of fine tuning perhaps and then they could easily turn their season around.'

Ferguson was disappointed that the better team didn`t go on to win the game: 'It was a real shame though because I felt we deserved to win the game. We played the better football, we had more of the ball and we created some good chances today which was pleasing.

'Obviously Dwight will take the limelight from our point of view, but I felt the whole team were very brave in possession today. The easiest thing for a team in our position to do would be to adopt a very regimental system and try and grind out results, but we want to be positive and to play good football and we did that in this game.

'We backed ourselves to take possession under pressure and keep it. On other days we will win games like that. Tony Mowbray is an honest man and I`m sure he will admit his side were fortunate to beat us.'

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